Protection Gear set

[Martini]

I hadn't seen a protection gear guide up here yet, so I thought I'd share mine here.



Slot
Item



Head -
Helm of the Faceless



Neck -
Bronze Pendant of the Vanir



Shoulders -
Conqueror's Aegis Shoulderguards, or
Shoulderplates of the Deconstructor


Chest -
Conqueror's Aegis Breastplate



Waist -
Indestructible Plate Girdle



Legs -
Legplates of the Endless Void



Feet -
Spiked Deathdealers



Wrist -
Bracers of the Unholy Knight, or
Mimiron's Inferno Couplings


Hands -
Handguards of Revitalization



Finger -
The Leviathan's Coil



Finger -
Fate's Clutch



Trinket -
Heart of Iron



Trinket -
Royal Seal of King Llane



Back -
Titanskin Cloak



Main Hand -
Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers



Shield -
The Boreal Guard



Libram -
Libram of the Sacred Shield




This was compiled without JC gems, and using my gem selections of STO, EFE, and SSS


Edit: I'm also looking for comments or suggestions on changes. I'm trying to figure out how to link to wowhead properly and will update with those once I figure out how to do it.

Edit: added in the Wowhead links, going for the locations next.

Edit: added in a couple optional choices

[arees]

Wrist: The one from FL has right at the same amount of avoidance, more stam (I think), str, and armor, plus a ton of hit.... its a clear upgrade to the bracers of the unholy knight.

[Martini]

Wrist: The one from FL has right at the same amount of avoidance, more stam (I think), str, and armor, plus a ton of hit.... its a clear upgrade to the bracers of the unholy knight.

In my gear I can already withstand 2 hits, these bracers are not going to make it three so the stam isn't going to help out too much. Overall avoidance for the gear set, Mimiron will drop it by .15%, not a lot, but meh. They are really close in comparrison, and yes I do believe Mimiron bracers are a CHOICE you can make here. I also associate hit with threat, this gear set was made in a bubble where threat is not an issue. Not that it is anyway...

[Uther.the.Lightbringer]

Yeah those are about the same choices I'd make for BiS set, except the Mimi bracers instead of the like above posted.

The only real thing that I'd change would have to be the Shoulders.. with all of your other gear choices picking BV shoulders just doesnt fit well imo unless you're maybe taking it for the BR for block cap. ???

I'd probably just change those to Deconstructer's Shoulders because they seem to be the only decent shoulders with pure avoidance in Ulduar(t7.5 having better avoidance but less stam) and to at least have SOME hit.

The entire set should get you around 36k-37k hp unbuffed depending on how you're gemmed and enchanted.

[Martini]

Yeah those are about the same choices I'd make for BiS set, except the Mimi bracers instead of the like above posted.

The only real thing that I'd change would have to be the Shoulders.. with all of your other gear choices picking BV shoulders just doesnt fit well imo unless you're maybe taking it for the BR for block cap.  ???

I'd probably just change those to Deconstructer's Shoulders because they seem to be the only decent shoulders with pure avoidance in Ulduar(t7.5 having better avoidance but less stam) and to at least have SOME hit.

The entire set should get you around 36k-37k hp unbuffed depending on how you're gemmed and enchanted.

I actually think I chose those because they are better looking =/

But looking at it from a pure tanking point of View I did have the XT shoulders on top at first. But once i added in all my buff food and raid buffs I normally have (using RAWR) the tier shoulders came out SLIGHTLY ahead in an overall value. The extra block is wasted this set would provide block cap either way, but only one has block value on it. The avoidance difference is .74% in favor of the XT shoulders. So again this would be a preference choice. Given the difference though I would normally go with the XT shoulders based on the stats, but like I said tier just looks better =P. But I'll add XT to the list as well as Mimirons bracers.

Also ass a side note, with the gem in place, they both have 127 stam, so no HP difference.

I'm also looking at T7.25 I had kind of disgarded that as an option, you know going into a new tier and all, but they compare VERY well still. still looking at them, and they may appear on this list

[cappytoi]

if you can't reach algalon for Legplates of the Endless Void t8 piece is not bad that. same for Handguards of Revitalization; since tier bonus is not that bad even for an avoidance tank.

[Offhand]

Wrist: The one from FL has right at the same amount of avoidance, more stam (I think), str, and armor, plus a ton of hit.... its a clear upgrade to the bracers of the unholy knight.

I would have to agree. You drop a tiny amount of avoidance (really tiny) for a decent stam upgrade. But your trinket choices, this is a stamina set by the looks of it.

if you can't reach algalon for Legplates of the Endless Void t8 piece is not bad that. same for Handguards of Revitalization; since tier bonus is not that bad even for an avoidance tank.

I believe the legs might drop off more then just Algalon and while they are the clear BiS item, the conqueror's and the saronite plated legguards are both viable options.

http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=45267;45594;46176

[Martini]

I would have to agree. You drop a tiny amount of avoidance (really tiny) for a decent stam upgrade. But your trinket choices, this is a stamina set by the looks of it.

Back to the bracers...again.
side by side, no buffs no other gear, no other gems other than what you can put into the knights, (excluding JC) Mimiron wins. however with everything else factored in, for the way I am scoring the gear Knights is slightly ahead. That is the difference, and why I picked them. If you want to see what gems I used where exactly feel free to review those selection in my blog. Link is under my signature.

I didn't choose those trinkets by going. Oh look the two highest stam trinkets in game, rock on. I chose them by comparing what they offer to me as a whole for tanking. They both carry with them really great CD's along with that high amount of stam. The way I build a stam set honestly is by pulling up Outfitter and selecting Stam, and then making adjustments for b.cap and defense. I'm sure these would be included in such a set, but they are not the basis of the set.

I believe the legs might drop off more then just Algalon and while they are the clear BiS item, the conqueror's and the saronite plated legguards are both viable options.

http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=45267;45594;46176

This is true. These would be nice steeping stones towards getting the voids, but this isn't really a guide to step gearing. These choices are what I feel I would choose to wear if I had every piece of tanking gear available to me. Not to knock your suggestions, as they are very valid points and choices, I just wanted to make it clear the intentions of the post.

[Evereghalo]

Back to the bracers...again.
side by side, no buffs no other gear, no other gems other than what you can put into the knights, (excluding JC) Mimiron wins. however with everything else factored in, for the way I am scoring the gear Knights is slightly ahead. That is the difference, and why I picked them. If you want to see what gems I used where exactly feel free to review those selection in my blog. Link is under my signature.

I didn't choose those trinkets by going. Oh look the two highest stam trinkets in game, rock on. I chose them by comparing what they offer to me as a whole for tanking. They both carry with them really great CD's along with that high amount of stam. The way I build a stam set honestly is by pulling up Outfitter and selecting Stam, and then making adjustments for b.cap and defense. I'm sure these would be included in such a set, but they are not the basis of the set.

This is true. These would be nice steeping stones towards getting the voids, but this isn't really a guide to step gearing. These choices are what I feel I would choose to wear if I had every piece of tanking gear available to me. Not to knock your suggestions, as they are very valid points and choices, I just wanted to make it clear the intentions of the post.

I disagree, unless you put accuracy on your weapon, which i do already your hit rating with all that gear is gonna be low. Even with hit as a non important tanking stat, if it is below 4percent you are going to start seeing misses.

Also considering the Gloves and Pants come from the Hard Modes. I would argue going for the 4 piece is good untill you can get both of them.


Also when it comes to going for the block cap, it seems that one needs atleast 2 peices of gear with a reasonable amount of Block rating on it. IMO those best pieces are the Shoulders and Borean Guard. For myself I have Northern Barrier, which was BIS untill the re-itemaization. So ill need that cloack before I can do alot of changes.

Also IMO unless your NOT using Glyph SoV then Shiver is the BIS mace over the XT hardmode mace. Esp with that gear build you have, because alota exp from the cloak and alot from Thorim's ring. Plus shiver is also a mace itself.
Also except for general and some hard modes, going for pure avoidance is not the best way to gear and stay geared.

[Uther.the.Lightbringer]

I disagree, unless you put accuracy on your weapon, which i do already your hit rating with all that gear is gonna be low. Even with hit as a non important tanking stat, if it is below 4percent you are going to start seeing misses.

Also considering the Gloves and Pants come from the Hard Modes. I would argue going for the 4 piece is good untill you can get both of them.


Also when it comes to going for the block cap, it seems that one needs atleast 2 peices of gear with a reasonable amount of Block rating on it. IMO those best pieces are the Shoulders and Borean Guard. For myself I have Northern Barrier, which was BIS untill the re-itemaization. So ill need that cloack before I can do alot of changes.

Also IMO unless your NOT using Glyph SoV then Shiver is the BIS mace over the XT hardmode mace. Esp with that gear build you have, because alota exp from the cloak and alot from Thorim's ring. Plus shiver is also a mace itself.
Also except for general and some hard modes, going for pure avoidance is not the best way to gear and stay geared.

Stacking pure avoidance is a gear choice... some like pure avoidance, some like high BV, and some like high health pools.

You're definetly right about the hit with this set, but those are in fact the best avoidance pieces out there and yes you can stay at block cap with just boreal gaurd with raid buffs easily. The only problem with choosing pure avoidance pieces is that your threat gets nerfed with out the hit, generally low BV, and less HS procs. Like I posted above though with that set you have about 36k-37k hp unbuffed and can still reach block cap with raid buffs.

I'm personally keeping chest and pants of t8.5 until alagon 25, but the other pieces just don't fit with a pure avoidance set well and even going for the set bonus for maybe extra threat and ocasional extra mitigation during those triple chains of hits isn't worth it entirely imo.

For the weapon choice, I still would debate that deconstructer's mace is better with higher wep dps for HotR but now that I'm looking at it if you're switching from shiver to deconstructer's mace you lose 2 stam(with socket bonus), gain 2 def, 3 parry, 4 str, and gain 32 expertise opposed to losing 27 hit rating. In my eyes it may not be worth switching with the over abundance of expertise the set already has(and the fact that I'm human). Idk the math for how much more damage getting a 10 wep dps increase would give to HotR but if it's something minimal I would stay with Shiver.

[Evereghalo]

Stacking pure avoidance is a gear choice... some like pure avoidance, some like high BV, and some like high health pools.

You're definetly right about the hit with this set, but those are in fact the best avoidance pieces out there and yes you can stay at block cap with just boreal gaurd with raid buffs easily. The only problem with choosing pure avoidance pieces is that your threat gets nerfed with out the hit, generally low BV, and less HS procs. Like I posted above though with that set you have about 36k-37k hp unbuffed and can still reach block cap with raid buffs.

I'm personally keeping chest and pants of t8.5 until alagon 25, but the other pieces just don't fit with a pure avoidance set well and even going for the set bonus for maybe extra threat and ocasional extra mitigation during those triple chains of hits isn't worth it entirely imo.

For the weapon choice, I still would debate that deconstructer's mace is better with higher wep dps for HotR but now that I'm looking at it if you're switching from shiver to deconstructer's mace you lose 2 stam(with socket bonus), gain 2 def, 3 parry, 4 str, and gain 32 expertise opposed to losing 27 hit rating. In my eyes it may not be worth switching with the over abundance of expertise the set already has(and the fact that I'm human). Idk the math for how much more damage getting a 10 wep dps increase would give to HotR but if it's something minimal I would stay with Shiver.

To answer your question 10 weapon dps is 10 weapon dps + damage modifiers.

so 10% from 1HwepSpec, and 6% from Crusade, would mean that its 10 x 1.16 = roughly 12 weapon dps more for each HotR which is 36 less overall damage on 3 mobs.

Personally, I have never understood why some people place a lot on weapon dps, which is not a bad thing, but we are not going from a 78blue to an 80 epic. But yea, shiver is so BiS for a prot paladin using SoV glyph. and if your gonna argue with me about going from titanguard to XT hard mode mace, blah blah its a whole diffrent comparison entirely.

Second, Going full avoidance still is not the best way a prot paladin can itemize for every fight. Some fights do call for it, But unless you have every piece, gearing for well rounded effective health with a decent BV, and good high avoidance is best.

In truth unless your an officer or the proverbial main tank, most guilds will keep an array of tanks if their smart 1 of each class. And going for every piece being avoidance one will still not touch a druid or DKs avoidance. It is worth sacrificing 2 or 3 percent avoidance if it can get your BV very high. Because even avoidance gearing for Paladins causes our threat to suffer. And currently having the highest single target threat is a very nice ace in the hole.

Fights where the dps can go no holds bar and they will never have to worry versus ones where they have to watch their threat, and have to slow down or stop after a series of crits, or even if your to the point where dps can stop taking threat reduction modifiers and pick up more damage (i am also aware that alota modifiers have second effects to encourage ppl to take) can mean alot for a raid.

In all honesty when people say threat is a non issue they dont see that their smart dps are intentionally not trying to pull, because on a good fight the mages in my guild can pump out 7k dps fully raid buffed. And I am not talking about hodir.

[Martini]

Really messy, and i don't feel like redoing a table for this (they aren't fun)
Below are what my stats would be (as a blood elf) with the above mentioned gear. This is against a lvl 83 mob (boss)

Block Capped
58.27% avoidance (pure)
less than 8% chance to miss, that's without caring about hit in the first place
I run Expertise glyph so I'm fine there as well.
This also includes buffs I know I can count on, including Fish Feast (I would normally run Agility food, but not always available)
1478Block value (without the lib. active)

Health:		      44066
Mana:		      5644
Strength:		      1712
Agility:		      374
Stamina:		      3320
Armor:		      27793
Defense:		      554
Dodge:		       28.01%
Parry:		       21.26%
Block:		       41.73%
Miss:		                8.99%
Block Value:		1478
Guaranteed Reduction:	67.88%
Avoidance:		        58.27%
Avoidance + Block:	100.00%
Total Mitigation:		91.38%
Chance to be Crit:	0.00%
Spell Power:		1042
Hit:		                92.53%
Spell Hit:		         83.91%
Expertise:		         28.69

thank you RAWR and your creators

and again gems/enchants are on blog tables are not easy to make here...

[Lightstrike]

I think it's important to remember that items that are best in slot when put together might not make the best set.

I'm not sure which you are going for here though Parium. Is this a list of BiS items or a best possible gear set?

If it's a set there will be a lot of contention between people when you get EH vs avoidance vs balance arguments, I think.

It does look like (to me), you have quite a few pieces with shield block rating, and comparing it to my current gear and what you listed in the previous post, some of it has to be wasted.. and wasted itemisation no matter how small is still a waste unless there is literally nothing that comes close with itemisation is different areas.

For example: Wouldn't http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45251 be a better choice than the T8.5 shoulders? The difference is only small, but surely better than wasted SBR? The 2 piece bonus is nice to have, but considering the bosses in ulduar, and how hard some of the trash hits, block in its current form is very poor in my opinion.

Personally, I've gone down the avoidance route with my main set of gear, I have a variety of trinkets I can swap in and out depending on the situation, so this is where I tend to change things for different situations (excluding my block value set).

[Raptorg]

Possible to make a 10-man set as well? For those who don't have access to 25-man content.

[Martini]

I think it's important to remember that items that are best in slot when put together might not make the best set.

I'm not sure which you are going for here though Parium. Is this a list of BiS items or a best possible gear set?

If it's a set there will be a lot of contention between people when you get EH vs avoidance vs balance arguments, I think.

It does look like (to me), you have quite a few pieces with shield block rating, and comparing it to my current gear and what you listed in the previous post, some of it has to be wasted.. and wasted itemisation no matter how small is still a waste unless there is literally nothing that comes close with itemisation is different areas.

For example: Wouldn't http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45251 be a better choice than the T8.5 shoulders? The difference is only small, but surely better than wasted SBR? The 2 piece bonus is nice to have, but considering the bosses in ulduar, and how hard some of the trash hits, block in its current form is very poor in my opinion.

Personally, I've gone down the avoidance route with my main set of gear, I have a variety of trinkets I can swap in and out depending on the situation, so this is where I tend to change things for different situations (excluding my block value set).

Yeah the XT shoulders i diffidently could see wearing. I realize I made a mistake while calcing out Block at some point in there. I think i let myself rely too much on RAWR, and didn't realize that it won't calc past 100% itself and ran with it being only 100%. I'm looking more at that right now. But there is still the matter of the mitigation that the teir shoulders have that may beat out the XT ones still. But dunno I need to go on a long thinking session to decide how much i want to weiht that Mit vs that avoid. Even so they are in the list of things I would use already

[Lightstrike]

Yeah, it seems that they are going to change the way block works so it's a bit of an unnerving time.. Right now I'm pouring all my dkp and effort into obtaining avoidance and stam pieces for TTL, but it could well turn out that block becomes awesome and stacking BV or a more balanced setup is required. Luckily however the pieces I'm not considering upgrading, have very nice block pieces as replacements should I need them...

[Martini]

Yeah, it seems that they are going to change the way block works so it's a bit of an unnerving time.. Right now I'm pouring all my dkp and effort into obtaining avoidance and stam pieces for TTL, but it could well turn out that block becomes awesome and stacking BV or a more balanced setup is required. Luckily however the pieces I'm not considering upgrading, have very nice block pieces as replacements should I need them...

I'm kinda excited about a block change ocming up, and our new CD too. prob with block though, they already know its not something the community has thought of, so scary dark mystery deal there.

[Offhand]

But looking at it from a pure tanking point of View I did have the XT shoulders on top at first. But once i added in all my buff food and raid buffs I normally have (using RAWR) the tier shoulders came out SLIGHTLY ahead in an overall value. The extra block is wasted this set would provide block cap either way, but only one has block value on it. The avoidance difference is .74% in favor of the XT shoulders. So again this would be a preference choice. Given the difference though I would normally go with the XT shoulders based on the stats, but like I said tier just looks better =P. But I'll add XT to the list as well as Mimirons bracers.

Some measure of block rating on gear isn't terrible. You'd be hard pressed to block cap with your base block % and pure avoidance. I'm pretty sure the two piece isn't too bad. At least it replaces the 2 piece from t7 with no real loss in threat. Of course, the shoulders are the least desirable tier 8 item there is, but it's better to build around hardmode drops and fit your tier in elsewhere.

Be very careful when using rawr. It values armor way more then any tank should. (ferals excluded)

[Lightstrike]

Personally I think I'm going to stick to t7.5 hands and shoulders and get the t8.5 chest for the 2 set bonus (i have the legs already).
For TPS I should be in a decent position, and since i havent seen any proper upgrades for my hands or shoulders drop yet, it'll keep me happy.
My guild hasnt started on vezax yet, so i'll have to wait for my 3 items from him in the meantime... i could really do with a better headpiece though..

[Martini]

Some measure of block rating on gear isn't terrible. You'd be hard pressed to block cap with your base block % and pure avoidance. I'm pretty sure the two piece isn't too bad. At least it replaces the 2 piece from t7 with no real loss in threat. Of course, the shoulders are the least desirable tier 8 item there is, but it's better to build around hardmode drops and fit your tier in elsewhere.

Be very careful when using rawr. It values armor way more then any tank should. (ferals excluded)

Yeah I knw about the RAWR misfuntions. I really use it for calcing out avoidance with buffs I try to do everything else by hand. most of the time it does a good job, but 've noticed a few times i've had to go uhm...no to it's choices. Still working on this whole Block issue though. Im coming across a couple pieces I like, or don't like depending on stat differences as a whole.